Southwest's Marley v-ball coach of year

Rick Scoppe-Sports Editor/The Daily News

Wednesday

Nov 21, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Before the volleyball season began, Southwest coach Bev Marley felt she’d be happy if her Stallions, who were short on numbers and, well, just plain short, could finish in the top three in the Coastal Plains 1-A Conference.

Before the volleyball season began, Southwest coach Bev Marley felt she’d be happy if her Stallions, who were short on numbers and, well, just plain short, could finish in the top three in the Coastal Plains 1-A Conference.

But in no time those expectations got raised after Southwest did better than expected in the early season Joseph L. Beasley Spike Fest at the Beach at Swansboro High School. But then after consecutive wins over 2-A South Lenoir and Swansboro along with 3-A White Oak, the Stallions stumbled.

“The bottom kind of fell out,” Marley said. “I was kind like, ‘OK!?’”

As it turned out, that was but a momentary ball in the net for Southwest, which recovered to finish 17-5 and earn a share of the CPC title with Dixon. The Stallions then beat the Bulldogs in a one-game playoff for the league’s No. 1 playoff seed and advanced to the third round of the playoffs.

All of which is why Marley earned coach of the year honors from The Daily News, beating out East Duplin’s Elizabeth Turner in a close vote of area coaches as well as the newspaper’s sports staff.

“Oh, wow,” Marley said when told of the honor. “Well, thank you.”

Marley molded a team that was few in numbers and had no towering and dominating presence at the net into a scrappy, never-say-die squad that beat a strong Rosewood team 27-25, 25-20, 25-21 in the second round of the playoffs before falling at Princeton two days later 25-19, 25-21, 25-19.

Princeton advanced to the regional finals before losing.

It was a year Marley will remember fondly — and not just for the memorable victories over Rosewood and Dixon (twice).

“This has probably been one of the most enjoyable teams that I’ve coached in all my years just because to be so diverse they got along so well. They actually became a little family,” Marley said in a recent interview. “I kind of got in about a three-day funk (after losing to Princeton) because I didn’t want it to end.

“Sometimes as coaches, whether we want to admit it or not, we’re glad that it ends. But with this group … it was just sad not to have them in practice the next day. They were really just a fun group to be around, just an uneventful season as far as drama, which is almost a miracle in girls’ sports.”

The Stallions were led by the one-two duo of Naya Burney and Taylor Marley, both of whom earned a spot on The Daily News all-area team. And while Burney and Marley were the Stallions’ stars, they had help from several role players that are critical to any team’s success.

Those players included Amanda McCurry, Hali Botzenhart and Lexi France.

“Naya and Taylor were definitely the most consistent, and Amanda McCurry just improved so much throughout the season. She became a great net player,” coach Marley said. “And then you had Hali Botzenhart and Lexi France who at times owned the net, even though they weren’t quite as consistent they took turns.

“And Hali coming out this year it just added so much to our team because she’s an athlete. She wants to win, and she has that intensity about her. She kind of has that blank face that you can’t read but I know what kind of heart she has.

“And a lot of them they just wanted to win. it makes it a lot more fun when you’re coaching and everybody wants the same thing.”

Two wins in particular stand out for Marley.

The first was Southwest coming back from a 2-0 deficit to win at Dixon and earn the CPC’s No. 1 playoff seed in a one-match playoff at the end of the regular season. The other was the Stallions’ impressive 3-0 victory over Rosewood, which was taller and probably more talented than Southwest.

“We beat a team that we probably shouldn’t have beaten,” Marley said.

But that win shared top honors for Marley with her team’s second win over Dixon.

“You always want to get that No. 1 seed and you always want to challenge your kids, and when they rise to the challenge you’ve got to be proud of that because that match could have gone either way,” Marley said.

“But Rosewood was the best game they played the entire season by far. And to see that, I don’t know, just like a proud momma kinda, you know what they have the capability of doing and then they do it, and they do it beyond what you thought, that’s really exciting.

“I wish we could have maintained that intensity. If we had, we could have been sitting somewhere that nobody was sitting at

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